Topic > X-Com: Terror from the Deep

XCOM: Enemy Unknown producer Garth DeAngelis discusses soldier progression as writer Rob Savillo deconstructs how the game approaches the player’s attachment to his squad as compared to past entries in the X-Com series.

Firaxis has released its second developer diary for the upcoming XCOM: Enemy Unknown. In this episode, the studio focuses on the game’s art direction, emphasizing the influence of “the sheer terror” of the original, X-Com: UFO Defense.

X-Com: UFO Defense, a strategy game from the early ’90s, is a sort of enigma. Although the original is revered as a masterstroke in design, every stab at a sequel or spiritual successor has fallen short. What about the X-Com formula is so elusive?
When I spoke with Jake Solomon, lead designer for Firaxis Games’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown (a “reimagining” of the original), that question weighed heavily on my mind.